Lil's Pad

Yesterday inamac was running Draco in an agility demo and a 'try-agility-with-your-dog' staged by the club to which she belongs. There will be photos of this, but let's start with one to prove that they really do do agility...

However, when we were packing up - a long and arduous process - some insect or other bit me on the left hand, just below my little finger. I was coming back from the loos when I noticed the hole, which was a millimetre or so across, and plainly quite deep. As I'd just washed my hands properly, with soap, I sucked it a bit and ignored it. When we got home I put some cream on it and forgot it.

Until I woke up and found that half my left hand was so swollen I couldn't see the tendons. During the day this area has grown to include the whole top of my left hand and part of my wrist.

The consequence of this was that I began to get worried and buzzed off to the NHS Direct website and left my number. They rang me back and suggested I go to a pharmacist and someone would definitely need to see it.

The consequence of this was that I have been running about all afternoon, dodging the roadworks that have sprung up over the weekend. I had to wait for the pharmacist, but he took one look, said, "Who's your doctor." I told him. He said, "Go."

At the Doctor's I had to wait unto 3pm which is when they free the late appointments. I have one for 6.20.

And the consequence of that is that the meta I promised for today, or possibly tomorrow, is once again delayed.

Oh, dear! I hope that swelling doesn't spread any further and that everything returns to normal pronto. It sounds like my normal reaction to horsefly bites, so I hope it turns out to be something like that and not a more serious sensitivity or infection.

I've never been bitten by horseflies - they can't like me or something - so it could indeed be that. The only time it was ever as bad as this was a tick bite on my leg, but this time I didn't have to remove a tick.

Yikes. Sounds not so much like an insect as a one-sided vampire (do vampire bites cause swelling? I don't remember the question coming up in any vampire stories I've come across - surely there must be some sort of anticoagulant involved to which the victim may react, apart from the possiblity of infection? It might be argued that by that stage you've got other problems, admittedly, but I'm sure that with all those lasses in flimsy nighties someone would have noticed.)

Good. That'll clobber the bugger. I'm always rather nervous about bites going gungy, given I got nibbled in Ireland in some years ago, ended up in hospital on a drip and was on horse tablets for a fortnight!

I once met someone who had been bitten by her cat and ended up with blood poisoning - the sight of her arm, which looked like a medical illustration in Grey's Anatomy has made me very wary of cat bites.

In a way I am glad about the pills. If it is a tick and if it should be carrying Lyme disease, this'll fix it! (I'm pretty sure that the last tick bite I had was Lyme infected, but I was taking antibiotics for a dental infection....)

The swelling is down a tad this morning in that I can now see the tendons move when I waggle my fingers, but the (dead) epidermis has now come off the bite site while I was in the bath, so that looks worse - or would if it wasn't covered by a plaster!